Floor-to-sidewall connection for vehicles



Oct. 6, 1964 W. EGGERT, JR

FLOOR-TO-SIDEWALL CONNECTION FOR VEHICLES Filed Feb. 25. 1962 iOl Hgo/Qu. MM

ATTORNEY United States Patent O M 3,ll,573 FLGGR-TG-SHBEWALL CQNNECTEN FR WEEECLES Walter S. Eggert, 5r., Philadelphia, Pa., assigner to The Budd Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Feb. 23, 1962, Ser. No. H5314 3 Claims. ('Cl. lili-dol) This invention relates to oor-to-sidewall connections for vehicles, and m re particularly to new and improved iiexible joint railway vehicle structures.

Railway cars were 'at one time made of wood, reinforced with steel plates, bolted or riveted together. Wooden cars were replaced with cars made of steel plates bolted and/ or riveted together. Modern railway cars are made by welding shapes together to form all-welded or all-steel railway cars. Such railway cars were structurally designed and assembled to rorm a rigid box.

Recent developments in railway cars have shown that rigid box structures are subject to stress concentrations at the points or joints of intersection of the rigid Jframe panels, for example, the iloor and sidewall panels. Elimination of the rigid-intersection between these panels by provision or a dexible intersection structure improves the load-carrying characteristics of the. structure and prevents fatigue failures at points of stress concentration in rigid all-steel cars.

Heretofore, flexible intersection joints between intersecting panels were restricted to flexible plates which were load-carrying members. in all-welded, ail-steel railway cars llexible plates me acceptable, but iiexible pla-tes preclude the 'assembly and disassembly of car panels `once they are welded in place. The ilexible plate intersection joint has proven the desirability of further improvements in ilexible joints.

Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved friction connection between the iloor-to-sidewall of a vehicle which will provide a flexing movement and avoid the heavy stress concentrations typical of rigid joint structures.

Another object of lthe present invention is to provide a lleriible joint construction between the floor-to-sidewall which uniformly transmits arid distributes loads imposed on one panel into the adjacent intersecting panel by friction coupling.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved joint between lioor-to-sidewall which permits easy modiication of existing rigid joint vehicle structures to provide a new and improved exible joint structure.

Other features and objects of novelty will be apparent from `the following description of an exemplary embodiment, reference being made to the accompanying dravings wherein:

FlG. l is a side elevation of a railway car body assembled rrom side, roof and :door panels;

FlG. 2 is an enlarged sectional elevation taken at the intersection of me iioor panel and side panel of the car body of lilG. l showing the friction-coupled flexible joint connection of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the coupled spring washer shown elevation in FiG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a section taken through the spring washer of FlG. 3 showing the washer in its normal unloaded state.

Referring now to FIG. l illustrating a typical railway car having a roof panel lll, a side panel 12 'and a iioor panel i4 (FlG. 2). rihe door panel i4 and side panel 12 are joined together at the bottom edge of the side Patented Get. 6, 1964 panel and the side edge of the floor panel to ilexible connection.

Floor panel 14 comprises sandwich panel sheets i6 and a T-bearn floor sill 1S welded thereto. The sandwich panel may be formed from 10' carbon deep-dra ing steel and the T-beam lis a commercially available structural shape provided with a laterally extending web.

Side panel i2 comprises a plurality of sidewall posts Zi? covered on the outside by corrugations 22 welded thereto. A Z-section formed sidesill plate 24 is attached by its upward extending leg to the sidewall posts 2d by welds as shown. In the preferred embodiment shown, the upward extending leg of the Z-section or sidesill 24 has a formed reinforcing bead and the downward extending leg is turned under to form a channel shaped member, thus, providing a structural reinforcing member for the sidewall posts. rl'he central web of the Z-section sidesill 2d runs horizontal along the bottom of the sidewal posts. An outer plate 2d is connected to the outside of the sidewall posts 2li and to the downward leg oi the Z-section 24.

During the manufacture of the railway car, floor panel 14 and side panel l2 are fabricated as separate components. After the door panel i4 is erected .the side panel l2 is lowered onto the horizontal web of the throughrunning door sill 18. Sidesill 24 forms a nesting structure for aligning the sidewall panel l2 onto the licor sill 13. A mastic sealer Ztl may be added between the sidewall panel l2 and iloor panel ld as shown.

in order to provide a joint which is ilexible and still provide an area of Contact between the central web of sidesill 24 and floor sill l, spring loaded fastening means 3i? are employed to connect the sills i8 and 212i. To facilitate ease of assembly the web members of the sills i8 and 24 are prepunched to provide an oversize aperture for the fastening means 39. Fastening means 353 preferably comprises a shear bolt 32, a locltnut or elastic stop nut 34 and one or more spring loading washers 3o which will be described hereinafter.

The webs of sills ld and 24 are provided with oversize apertures to eliminate any transmission of shear bearing loads between the web members through the bolt SZ. This is a unique departure from rigid all-welded structures and iiexible all-welded structures.

When a load is applied to sidewall panel l2 that tends to bend i-t either outwardly or inwardly, fastening means 3@ maintains a portion of the web of sill 2f:- in contact with the sill 13. lf a load tends to bend the sidewall panel l2 outward, the fastening means 3@ permits the portion of the web of sill 24 to the right of bolt 32 to lift against the spring tension of washer 35. When panel 12 ytends to bend inward, the outer portion of the web of sill Z-i to the left of bolt 32 tends -to lift against the tension of washer 35. lt is apparent from an explanation of the :lening action that the moment forces at the. panel joints are greatly reduced.

Not only does the spring action of the washer 3d spread the bending moment imposed at the bolt 32, but the fastening means 3@ are spaced between sidewall posts 2i) so that the webs of the sills act as torsion bars between adjacent sidewali posts. This is accomplished by spacing the bolts away from the intersection of the side posts md the side sills 24.

IG. 3 is a plan view of the spring loading washer 36 which is formed by providing a flat blank of metal slightly larger than the outer perimeter of the shaped washer shown. The blank is pressed between mating dies to provide a cupped and arised spring loading washer 35 as shown in FlG. 4. The cupped spring loading washer 36 yis heat treated after die iormin to provide its spring characteristics. Gnce the spring loading washer 35 is form a compressed flush against the sidesill 24 by the nut and Y bolt t'ne locking yaction between sills 1S and 24 is by friction alone.

The rail car joint shown offers a cheap reliable ilexible joint which permits complete rail cars to be made as panels, shipped inrpanel form to distant points and assembled without any requirement for factory jigs and expensive equipment. Not only does this reduce the cost of manufacture, but greatly reduces sbippingcosts. Also, existing rigid joint structures may be disassembled and provide with sills similar to those shown zuidreadily reassembled without employing expensive jigs.

It is seen that the invention providesa very dependable, and durable connectionwhich is easyto assemble. The nesting action of tbe interconnecting joint of Vthe panels does not attempt to cut tlnougli or shear the bolt 32 and provides a novel and improved fle-:iure ,connection between railway car panels Vwhich continue to remain friction tight even though some wear may occur. The novel friction coupled flexible joint permits the employment of materials which are incompatible for welding. `Wliile one embodiment of the invention llas been described for .the purposes of illustration it is to be understood that there may be various embodiments and modilications within the scope or" tbe invention such as minor modiiications of the sill elements or the fastening means to achieve tbe novel iiexure joint.

What is claimed is:

l. A flexible iloor-to-sidewall connection for a railway venicleliaving Ia vertical sidewall panel and a horizontal iioor panel comprising, a vertical sidewall panel llaving a plurality ot vertical sidewall posts, a throughrunning Z-section sidesill connected to said plurality of sidewall posts, said sidesill having an upturned leg and aV downturned leg connected to a center web, bent for- Y mations on each said leg providing longitudinal stitlness,

a horizontal floor panel having reinforcing skin sheets, a througlirunning T-section sidesill connected to said skin ,ses

sheets and providing acantilevered extending horizontal web, a bolt connector fastened through said center web of said Z-section and said horizontal web of said T- section connecting said ioo'r panel to said sidewall panel, and 'a cupped spring washer ilusll mounted between said connector and said center web providing a spring loaded iiexible joint between said Vlicor panel and said sidewall panel. Y

2. A connection as set forth in claim 1 where-in there is further provided an outside reinforcing Yplate connected to said sidewall post 'and tofsaid downward Vleg of said .T-section.V

3. In a railway vehicle, tbe combination comprising:

a sidewall panel comprising a plurality of vertical, Y

longitudinally-spaced posts, a sidewall sill connected to and extending along the bottom of sidewall panel,

a sandwich structureV floor panel, aY T-sectiou 'sill' References Cited in the iile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,190,371 YPaclnnan Nov. 30, 1937 2,247,959 McComb n July 1, 1941 2,815,722 Dean Dec. 10, 1957 2,838,339 Schaldenbrand June 10, 1958 2,941,564 McComb lune 2l, 1960 3,034,824 Schuback May l5, 1962 3,066,621 Dean et al; Dec. 4, 1962 3,103,498 Dean Sept. 3, 1963 

3. IN A RAILWAY VEHICLE, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING: A SIDEWALL PANEL COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF VERTICAL, LONGITUDINALLY-SPACED POSTS, A SIDEWALL SILL CONNECTED TO AND EXTENDING ALONG THE BOTTOM OF SIDEWALL PANEL, A SANDWICH STRUCTURE FLOOR PANEL, A T-SECTION SILL ATTACHED TO AND EXTENDING ALONG SAID FLOOR PANEL AND HAVING A HORIZONTAL PORTION ABUTTING A PORTION OF SAID SIDEWALL SILL ALONG ITS LENGTH, A PLURALITY OF 